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The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and two other senior officers are being removed, officials said Friday — the latest in a series of military firings this year.The removal of Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse, who led the DIA since early 2024, comes after the agency produced a preliminary assessment that said US strikes on Iran set back Tehran’s nuclear program by just a few months.The assessment — which was widely reported on by US media — contradicted claims from President Donald Trump that the strikes totally destroyed the nuclear sites, drawing the ire of both him and officials within his administration.Kruse “will no longer serve as DIA director,” a senior defense official said on condition of anonymity, without providing an explanation for the general’s departure.Prior to becoming director of the DIA, Kruse served as the advisor for military affairs for the director of national intelligence, and also held positions including director of intelligence for the coalition against the Islamic State jihadist group.A US official separately said on condition of anonymity that two other senior officers — Vice Admiral Nancy Lacore, chief of Navy Reserve, and Rear Admiral Milton Sands, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command — were also leaving their positions.- Series of top officers fired -In June, the United States launched a massive operation against three Iranian nuclear sites, an effort that involved more than 125 US aircraft as well as a guided missile submarine.Trump called the strikes a “spectacular military success” and repeatedly said they “obliterated” the nuclear sites, but the DIA’s preliminary assessment raised doubts about the president’s claims.The Trump administration responded with an offensive against the media, insisting the operation was a total success and berating journalists for reporting on the assessment.Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth insisted the assessment was “leaked because someone had an agenda to try to muddy the waters and make it look like this historic strike wasn’t successful,” and slammed “fawning coverage of a preliminary assessment.”Since beginning his second term in January, Trump has overseen a purge of top military officers, including chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff general Charles “CQ” Brown, whom he fired without explanation in February.Other senior officers dismissed this year include the heads of the Navy and Coast Guard, the general who headed the National Security Agency, the vice chief of staff of the Air Force, a Navy admiral assigned to NATO, and three top military lawyers.The chief of staff of the Air Force also recently announced his retirement without explanation just two years into a four-year term.Hegseth has insisted the president is simply choosing the leaders he wants, but Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about the potential politicization of the traditionally neutral US military.Earlier this year, the Pentagon chief additionally ordered at least a 20 percent reduction in the number of active-duty four-star generals and admirals in the US military, as well as a 10 percent cut in the overall number of general and flag officers.

President Donald Trump on Friday tapped close political aide Sergio Gor as US ambassador to India, sending one of his feared enforcers at a delicate time in ties with New Delhi.The 38-year-old Gor rose quickly in conservative politics to become one of the most powerful, if low-profile, aides in the White House with a task of vetting some 4,000 appointees to ensure utmost loyalty to Trump.Gor’s enemies include Elon Musk, who following his spectacular falling-out with Trump branded Gor a “snake” after he scuttled the tech and aerospace billionaire’s choice to lead NASA.Gor’s influence does not include extensive experience in foreign policy, beyond joining travel overseas and leading a purge of National Security Council staffers whose views were called into suspicion.”For the most populous Region in the World, it is important that I have someone I can fully trust to deliver on my Agenda and help us, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.”Sergio will make an incredible Ambassador,” he wrote.Trump wrote that Gor would also hold a role of special envoy for South and Central Asia. Trump has largely sidelined traditional diplomats and relied for diplomacy on personal friends, with the State Department’s top position for South Asia still vacant.The nomination comes after a spike in tensions with India, which the United States has prioritized as an emerging partner since the 1990s.Trump has moved to ramp up tariffs on India to pressure it over its purchases of energy from Russia, despite Trump’s own diplomacy with counterpart Vladimir Putin.India in recent days has held top-level meetings with both Russia and China. Successive US administrations have viewed India as a balance against China, seen as the top US global rival.Trump has spoken of brokering between India and Pakistan after they reached a ceasefire in a brief conflict in May, although India has been hesitant on any direct US role.- Political insider -Gor was born in Uzbekistan when it was still in the Soviet Union — a background on which he has been discreet — before moving as a child to Malta.After attending university in the United States, he became active in Republican Party politics, eventually taking top positions with Senator Rand Paul, a leading Republican critic of foreign interventionism, then working as a fund-raiser and book publisher for Trump — and as an amateur wedding DJ.In his post, Trump hailed Gor’s work as director of presidential personnel, saying that 95 percent of positions have been filled and that he will stay on until the Republican-led Senate confirms him as ambassador.Secretary of State Marco Rubio quickly endorsed Gor on X, saying he would be an “excellent representative of America in one of the most important relationships our nation has in the world.”Trump named an ambassador to India later than for many other major countries. While presidents have often tapped political aides as ambassador — former president Joe Biden sent former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to Tokyo — India has an illustrious history of seeing public intellectuals as ambassador. US ambassadors to India have included prominent economist John Kenneth Galbraith and the social scientist and future senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan.Biden’s ambassador to India was Eric Garcetti, a former mayor of Los Angeles known for his interest in Indian philosophy and who had studied Hindi and Urdu as a young man.

US President Donald Trump announced Friday that the draw for the 2026 World Cup will be held in Washington on December 5 — and then jokingly asked if he could keep the golden trophy for himself.The draw for the 48-team football championship will be held at the Kennedy Center in the US capital, where Trump recently installed himself as chairman in what he called a war on “woke” culture.”It’s the biggest, probably the biggest event in sports,” Trump, flanked by FIFA chief Gianni Infantino, said as he made the announcement in the Oval Office of the White House.The 2026 World Cup is being hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico next year, and Trump has made a big deal about it happening during his presidency.Infantino, who has fostered close ties with the billionaire US president, brought the World Cup with him for the announcement and even let Trump get his hands on it.”Only the FIFA president, presidents of countries, and then those who win can touch it, because it’s for winners only. And since you are a winner, of course you can as well touch it,” Infantino said.”Can I keep it?” replied Trump, who won a second term in the White House last year, as he lifted the trophy with both hands. “That’s a beautiful piece of gold.”Trump appeared to be joking — although the separate FIFA Club World Cup trophy remains in the Oval Office more than a month after English side Chelsea won it in New Jersey last month.- Putin ‘may be coming and he may not’ -There was a brief moment of nerves as Trump appeared to fumble the World Cup before placing it on his desk — as Infantino reached out a hand to steady it.Infantino later presented the US leader with a giant ticket — Row 1 Seat 1 — for the World Cup final on July 19 at the MetLife stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York.Trump also suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin may attend the World Cup.Holding up a photo that he said Putin had sent him after their summit in Alaska last week, Trump said the Kremlin chief “wants to be there very badly,” but that he “may be coming and he may not” depending on the outcome of Ukraine peace efforts.The United States was named as a joint host of the 2026 World Cup during Trump’s first term as president in 2018. He lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden but won a second term last year.Since his return to power, Trump has launched a major crackdown on immigration, but he said it would be “very easy” for most World Cup fans to get a visa.For visitors from some countries, it would be “obviously a little bit more difficult,” said Trump, who has banned all travelers from 12 nations including Afghanistan, Haiti and Iran.- ‘Trump-Kennedy Center’ -The World Cup draw was reportedly due to be held in Las Vegas but the new venue has more political overtones.Trump led a takeover of the Kennedy Center earlier this year, saying that the venerable performing arts venue named after late Democratic president John F. Kennedy had become too “woke.”He added on Friday as he made the announcement that “some people refer to it as the Trump-Kennedy Center, but we’re not prepared to do that quite yet, maybe in a week or so.” Trump visited the Kennedy Center just before the Oval Office announcement on Friday. He has said he is going to make major improvements to “beautify” it, including adding marble cladding.The US president also hailed a major federal crime crackdown in Washington that has seen US National Guard troops deployed on the streets of the capital.Trump said the move would make Washington safe for football fans visiting the city during next year’s tournament.

Multiple tourists were killed and others injured Friday when a bus carrying more than 50 sightseers home from a visit to Niagara Falls crashed in New York state, officials said.Police said many of the passengers heading back to New York City were of Indian, Chinese and Filipino descent.State police spokesman James O’Callaghan told reporters the bus had traveled to Niagara Falls, on the border with Canada, for the day and was heading home when the accident took place east of Buffalo.”For unknown reasons, the vehicle lost control, went into the median, overcorrected and ended up in the ditch,” O’Callaghan said.”This bus was going full speed. It did not hit any other vehicle.”The police spokesman said people were still trapped in the wreckage, while others were ejected on impact. Images broadcast on local television showed the heavily damaged bus on its side.Translators were sent to the scene to help communicate with the victims.At least one child was among the dead, the spokesman said, without offering a specific death toll.”There are many serious injuries, and as was just announced by New York State Police, there are multiple fatalities,” Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz said on X.At least 21 people were taken to Erie County Medical Center, a hospital official told AFP.- ‘Heartbroken’ -Eight helicopters were involved in the rescue effort, Margaret Ferrentino, president of Mercy Flight, a nonprofit provider of air ambulance services, told AFP. “The driver is alive and well — we’re working with him. We believe we have a good idea of what happened, why the bus lost control. We just want to make sure that all the details are thoroughly vetted,” O’Callaghan said.State Governor Kathy Hochul said her team was coordinating with state police and local officials “who are working to rescue and provide assistance to everyone involved.””I’m heartbroken for all those we’ve lost and all those injured and praying for their families. Thank you to our brave first responders on the scene,” said the senior US senator from New York, Chuck Schumer.Niagara Falls — towering waterfalls that span the US-Canada border — is a popular tourist destination.

A Gambian man convicted of torturing opponents of the African country’s former president was sentenced to more than 67 years in a US prison on Friday.Michael Sang Correa, 46, served in an armed unit known as the “Junglers,” which answered to The Gambia’s then-president, Yahya Jammeh.Correa was convicted by a jury in Denver, Colorado, in April of torturing people because of suspicions they had plotted against Jammeh.The Justice Department said the torture included burning victims with molten plastic and subjecting them to vicious beatings.”Today, Michael Correa has finally been held accountable for the brutal violence he inflicted on others,” acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti said in a statement.”The United States will not be a safe haven for individuals who seek to conceal their egregious human rights violations.”Jurors in Colorado heard how in March 2006, shortly after a failed coup attempt, the Junglers took their victims to The Gambia’s main prison.Over the next two months, they beat, stabbed, burned, and electroshocked their victims, including some on their genitals.One man testified that he had his thigh burned by molten plastic; another told of how he was suffocated, while others spoke of being pistol whipped, burned with cigarettes and hit in the face with a hammer.Correa was convicted of five counts of torture and one of conspiracy to commit torture.Correa entered the United States in 2016 to work as a bodyguard for The Gambia’s vice president, who was visiting the United Nations.He stayed in the country and moved to Denver at some point after Jammeh, who ruled the country with an iron fist from 1994 to 2017, was voted out of office.Correa was arrested by US authorities in September 2019, initially for overstaying his visa.The paramilitary Junglers operated outside the Gambian army’s chain of command, taking orders directly from Jammeh, and have been accused by watchdog groups of carrying out widespread human rights violations.Another member of the Junglers, Bai Lowe, was sentenced to life in prison in Germany in November 2023 after being convicted of crimes against humanity, murder and attempted murder.A Swiss court sentenced Gambian ex-interior minister Ousman Sonko to 20 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed under the Jammeh regime.Victims of the Junglers included an AFP correspondent, Deyda Hydara, who was gunned down in his car on the outskirts of Gambia’s capital Banjul on December 16, 2004.

FBI agents raided the home and office on Friday of former national security advisor John Bolton, one of US President Donald Trump’s fiercest critics, in an investigation officials said was linked to classified documents.Trump, asked about the FBI searches, said he was “not a fan” of his former aide but did not know about the law enforcement operation ahead of time.The FBI declined to comment on the coordinated raids of Bolton’s home in the Washington suburb of Bethesda and his downtown office in the nation’s capital, but FBI director Kash Patel posted “NO ONE is above the law” on X as they were taking place.”We’re in the very early stages of an ongoing investigation into John Bolton,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview with NBC News.”Classified documents are certainly part of it,” Vance said, and there was also “broad concern” about Bolton. He did not elaborate.Vance denied Bolton was being targeted because of his criticism of the president.”No, not at all,” he said. “Our focus here is on, did he break the law? Did he commit crimes against the American people? If so, then he deserves to be prosecuted.”Democratic lawmaker Jamie Raskin, whose Maryland congressional district includes Bolton’s neighborhood, called the raid “disturbing.””This looks like it’s very much in line with the other acts of political retribution and vengeance exacted against Bolton,” Raskin told CNN.- Trump calls Bolton ‘sleazebag’ – Trump, in comments to reporters in the Oval Office, noted that his own Mar-a-Lago home was raided by the FBI after he left the White House as part of a probe into the mishandling of classified documents.”They went through everything they could, including my young son’s room and my wife’s area,” the president said.As for Bolton, he called him a “sleazebag” suffering from “Trump derangement syndrome.”The now 76-year-old Bolton served as Trump’s national security advisor in his first term and later angered the administration with the publication of a highly critical book, “The Room Where it Happened.”Legal efforts to block its release for allegedly containing classified information were dropped when Joe Biden replaced Trump in the White House in 2021.  Bolton has since become a highly visible and pugnacious critic of Trump, frequently appearing on television news shows and in print to condemn the man he has called “unfit to be president.”A longtime critic of the Iranian regime, Bolton was a national security hawk and has received death threats from Tehran.- ‘Retribution presidency’ -The raid by the FBI came seven months after Trump stripped Bolton — and multiple other foes — of federal protective details.Asked recently in an interview with ABC whether he was worried about Trump “coming after” him, Bolton said: “He’s already come after me and several others in withdrawing the protection that we had.””I think it is a retribution presidency,” Bolton said.Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies and political opponents.He has stripped former officials of their security clearances, targeted law firms involved in past cases against him and pulled federal funding from universities.The FBI opened criminal investigations in July into two other prominent Trump critics, former FBI director James Comey and ex-CIA chief John Brennan. Trump was the target of several investigations after leaving the White House and the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago home in 2022 as part of the probe into mishandling of classified documents.Trump was also charged by Special Counsel Jack Smith with plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.Neither case came to trial, and Smith — in line with a Justice Department policy of not prosecuting a sitting president — dropped them both after Trump won the November 2024 presidential election.

US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell left the door open to interest rate cuts in a keenly watched speech Friday, balancing risks to the economy as President Donald Trump intensifies pressure on the central bank.Last year, the Fed chair used his keynote speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Policy Symposium to indicate the time had come for interest rate cuts. This time, however, the picture is murkier.Powell faces constant attacks from Trump — who is aggressively pushing the independent bank to slash rates — alongside mixed economic data leading him towards a cautious approach.Powell warned Friday that the risks of higher inflation and a weakening jobs market add up to a “challenging situation.””Downside risks to employment are rising,” Powell said in his speech, warning that these challenges could materialize quickly in the form of layoffs.”While the labor market appears to be in balance, it is a curious kind of balance that results from a marked slowing in both the supply of and demand for workers,” he noted.He added that “the effects of tariffs on consumer prices are now clearly visible” and expected to accumulate over the coming months.He said there is high uncertainty about the timing and extent of the tariffs’ impact.But he vowed: “We will not allow a one-time increase in the price level to become an ongoing inflation problem.”Confronted with these dual challenges, Powell alluded to a possible rate cut: “With policy in restrictive territory, the baseline outlook and the shifting balance of risks may warrant adjusting our policy stance.”Asked about Powell’s remarks Friday, Trump told reporters: “We call him ‘Too Late’ for a reason.” The president said Powell should have cut rates a year ago.This marked Powell’s final Jackson Hole speech at the helm of the Fed, with his term as chair ending in May 2026.- Gradual cuts -“That’s about as clear cut as Powell can get” in signaling that he leans towards a September rate cut, said Navy Federal Credit Union chief economist Heather Long.”While he is committed to ensuring that the tariff shocks are a one-time impact on inflation, he is telegraphing that the jobs situation is deteriorating quickly and that is the biggest risk now,” she added in a note.Wall Street rallied Friday after Powell’s remarks, with both the Dow and Nasdaq climbing around 2.0 percent. Treasury yields, which are sensitive to monetary policy developments, pulled back.CME Group’s FedWatch Tool showed that the market sees a roughly 85-percent chance of a September rate cut.But Ryan Sweet, chief US economist at Oxford Economics, said the next rate reduction might not be “the beginning of a series.””Powell stressed that policy isn’t on a preset course and will continue to be based on the incoming data and the balance of risks,” Sweet said.The Fed chair appears to be setting the stage for a “gradual approach” to adjusting rates, he added.- Trump pressure -For now, the Fed sees growing pressure from the Trump administration on various fronts.Trump also said Friday that he would fire Fed governor Lisa Cook if she did not resign, after lashing out at her over claims of mortgage fraud.But the president is limited in his ability to remove officials from the central bank.Cook previously stated that she had “no intention of being bullied to step down,” while indicating that she would take questions about her financial history seriously.Trump has made no secret of his disdain for Powell, repeatedly saying that the Fed chair has been “too late” in lowering rates and calling him a “numbskull” and “moron.”He has also taken aim at Powell over the Fed’s headquarters renovation in Washington, at one point suggesting that cost overruns could be cause for ousting the central banker.The Fed, which holds its next policy meeting in mid-September, has kept interest rates steady at a range of between 4.25 percent and 4.50 percent since its last reduction in December.Policymakers cited resilience in the labor market as they monitored the effects of Trump’s tariffs on inflation.But cracks have emerged in the jobs market, which could lead the Fed to lower rates to boost the economy.

National Guard troops will soon carry weapons in Washington, DC, where President Donald Trump ordered their deployment as part of a crackdown on crime, a US defense official said Friday.Trump has said Washington was a “crime-infested rat hole” before he sent troops onto its streets last week and said Friday that Chicago and New York — two more major Democrat-led cities — are set to receive similar treatment.”At the direction of the secretary of defense, JTF-DC members supporting the mission to lower the crime rate in our nation’s capital will soon be on mission with their service-issued weapons,” the defense official said on condition of anonymity, referring to the Joint Task Force-DC.The US Army previously said as troops began to arrive that “weapons are available if needed but will remain in the armory.”There are now more than 1,900 National Guard troops in Washington, both from the city as well as the Republican-led states of West Virginia, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee, which have also sent forces.On Friday, Trump said Chicago and New York are also on his list of targets.”We’re going to make our cities very, very safe,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I think Chicago will be our next and then we’ll help with New York.”- Lowest violent crime in years -The US president also discussed declaring a national emergency to keep troops in Washington for longer than 30 days.Republican politicians — led by Trump — have claimed that the overwhelmingly Democratic US capital is overrun by crime, plagued by homelessness and financially mismanaged.Data from Washington police, however, showed significant drops in violent crime between 2023 and 2024, though that was coming off a post-pandemic surge.A Justice Department statement from January said that based on that data, “total violent crime for 2024 in the District of Columbia is down 35 percent from 2023 and is the lowest it has been in over 30 years.”But Trump has accused Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser of “giving false and highly inaccurate crime figures,” threatening “bad things” including a total federal takeover of the city if she does not stop doing so.In addition to the deployment of the National Guard, federal law enforcement personnel — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement — have also recently surged their presence on Washington’s streets, drawing protests from residents.The deployment of troops in Washington comes after Trump dispatched the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest in Los Angeles, California, that was sparked by immigration enforcement raids.That was the first time since 1965 that a US president deployed the National Guard against the wishes of a state governor, who are usually responsible for those forces.

Canada will remove all tariffs on US goods that are compliant with the existing North American free trade agreement, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Friday, matching exemptions affirmed earlier this month by Washington. President Donald Trump called the move “nice.”Speaking to reporters a day after a lengthy call with Trump, Carney said Canada has “the best deal of any country with the United States right now.”Following a series of agreements the United States has signed with major partners including the European Union, Carney said it was clear the Trump administration is compelling countries “to buy access to the world’s largest economy.”He said the average tariff rate on goods entering the United States from around the world was now at 16 percent, up from two percent before Trump took office. The US tariff rate on Canadian goods was 5.6 percent, the prime minister said, adding “85 percent of our trade is tariff-free.”Carney has said it was crucial the United States decided earlier this month to maintain its tariff exemption on all goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).Effective September 1, Canada will match that exemption as a goodwill gesture, as it aims to “intensify” discussions with the Trump administration on a broader trading relationship, the prime minister said.  – ‘Puck in the net’ -Carney, a former competitive hockey player, said the decision to remove some counter-tariffs reflected the evolving stages of those negotiations. “There is a time in the game… (when) we dropped the gloves in the first period to send a message,” he said, using hockey terminology for punching an opponent.  “There’s also a time in the game… (when) you want to put the puck in the net,” he said, stressing Ottawa was now focused on clinching a deal that could offer long-term benefits for the Canadian economy. Asked if he had received assurances from Trump on Thursday that the tariff announcement would help kickstart talks on a broader trade deal, Carney said “yes.”Trump said he “had a very good talk” with Carney on Thursday. “I like Carney a lot. I think he’s a good, good person,” the president said. Carney also stressed his government was focused on preparing for USMCA revision talks set for next year, a timeline agreed by all sides when the deal was signed during Trump’s first term. Trump’s global sector-specific tariffs — namely those targeting all auto, steel and aluminum imports — have done the most damage in Canada. “Canada will retain our tariffs on steel, aluminum and autos as we work intensively with the US to resolve the issues there,” Carney said. “Our focus now is squarely on these strategic sectors and the future.”

Russia on Friday ruled out an immediate meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, as diplomatic tension with the Ukrainian president escalated and US mediation efforts appeared to stall.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said “no meeting” between Vladimir Putin and Zelensky was planned, as NATO chief Mark Rutte visited Kyiv, largely to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine.US President Donald Trump had raised expectations for a swift summit between the Russian and Ukrainian presidents by saying earlier in the week they had agreed to meet, but on Friday compared the two men to “oil and vinegar”.”They don’t get along too well, for obvious reasons,” he told reporters in Washington.Lavrov also poured cold water on hopes for direct Putin-Zelensky talks to resolve the conflict, now in its fourth year, by questioning the Ukrainian president’s legitimacy and repeating the Kremlin’s maximalist claims.”There is no meeting planned,” Lavrov said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker”. Lavrov told the US broadcaster Putin was “ready to meet Zelensky” as soon as an agenda was prepared, adding that the agenda was “not ready at all”.In Kyiv, speaking alongside Rutte, Zelensky said Ukraine had “no agreements with the Russians”, saying Ukraine had agreed only with Trump on how the diplomatic direction could proceed.On Thursday, he had accused Russia of “trying to wriggle out of holding a meeting”, adding that Moscow wanted to continue the offensive.  – ‘A utopia’ -The question of eventual security guarantees for Ukraine has been front and centre during the latest US-led diplomatic push to broker a peace deal to end the conflict.Trump earlier said Russia had agreed to some Western security guarantees for Kyiv.But Moscow later cast doubt on any such arrangement, Lavrov saying on Wednesday that discussing them without Russia was “a utopia, a road to nowhere”.”When Russia raises the issue of security guarantees, I honestly do not yet know who is threatening them,” said Zelensky, who wants foreign troops in Ukraine to deter Russian attacks in the future. The Kremlin has long said it would never accept that, citing Ukraine’s NATO ambition as one of the pretexts for its assault. “There are several principles which Washington believes must be accepted, including no NATO membership, including the discussion of territorial issues, and Zelensky said no to everything,” Lavrov told NBC.On a visit to Kyiv, during which an air raid alert sounded across the city, Rutte said security guarantees were needed to ensure “Russia will uphold any deal and will never ever again attempt to take one square kilometre of Ukraine”.Moscow signed the Budapest Memorandum in 1994, which was aimed at ensuring security for Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan in exchange for them giving up numerous nuclear weapons left from the Soviet era.Russia violated that first by taking Crimea in 2014, and then by starting a full-scale offensive in 2022, which has killed tens of thousands of people and forced millions to flee their homes.